Subex and RAG Announce First of its Kind Alliance to Leverage Blockchain for Combatting Fraud

Subex, a leading telecom analytics solutions provider, today announced it has joined hands with the Risk & Assurance Group (RAG) to provide a blockchain-based fraud management solution to its customers. As part of this alliance, Subex becomes part of the RAG Wangiri Blockchain Consortium which seeks to use Blockchain technology to gather real-time industry threat intelligence about fraudsters. The consortium includes some of the world’s leading Communications Service Providers (CSP) from North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Fraud continues to be a major problem for telecom operators, costing them billions of dollars annually. With technology enabling fraudsters to outsmart traditional fraud management controls, solutions that can enable data exchange in real-time are the need of the hour for operators. By partnering with the RAG Wangiri Blockchain Consortium, Subex aims to provide its customers with a decentralized and cryptographically secure blockchain ledger of fraud-related information. The ledger is already supported by CSPs across the globe, synchronized and made available to all consortium members in real-time.  Subex will make it easy for users of their ROC Fraud Management solution to update and utilize this common repository.  Existing customers using compatible versions of ROC Fraud Management will be able to take advantage of this threat intelligence database. The improved quantity, quality and timeliness of fraud-related data will benefit Subex’s clients whilst helping the whole industry by increasing the number and diversity of CSPs that share information about fraud.  The first use case focusses on Wangiri fraud, which is a global and increasing problem for telcos and their customers.

Commenting on the partnership Rohit Maheshwari, Head – Strategy and Products, Subex said, “The threat of fraud is ever-looming and telecom operators are consistently challenged to keep up with the increasing sophistication of fraudsters in today’s digital ecosystem. While data exchange between operators has always been touted as a solution to the problem, past industry efforts have been limited and largely offline. We, at Subex, are excited about the promise of RAG Wangiri Blockchain as it enables an API based mechanism for telecom operators to exchange data, allowing them to respond to threats faster than ever before. Further this will be one of the first large scale blockchain based efforts in the fraud data exchange space. Blockchain functions well in consortium-type environments that require high levels of trust and auditability in the data that is shared between consortium members. We believe this is a great opportunity for the industry to come together and move collectively against fraud. Moreover, from an organizational standpoint, this is in line with our aspiration to play a role towards enabling collaboration and contributing further to the fraud management community.”

“We are thrilled to be working with Subex on this global initiative,” said Eric Priezkalns, Chief Executive of RAG.  “The telecoms industry has repeatedly tried to use common databases to share information about crime, but the results have usually been disappointing. Put simply, old technology meant updating the database was too slow and burdensome.  The distributed and secure nature of Blockchain eliminates many obstacles to the exchange of data, which is why a wide range of telcos have already joined our anti-wangiri consortium.  Linking Subex’s market-leading Fraud Management System to our Blockchain ledger will make it even more straightforward for telcos to contribute and receive fraud intelligence from other telcos within their country and overseas.”